richards



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

W. F. RICHARDS,

ELECTRIC LIGHTING APPARATUS FOR RAILWAY CARS.

No. 604,085. Patented May 17,1898.

ITN ESSESQ ATTORN EYS- UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

"WILLARD F. RICHARDS, OF BUFFALO, NEWV YORK, ASSIGNOR TO CHARLES M. GOULD, OF SAME PLACE.

ELECTRIC-LIGHTING APPARATUS FOR RAILWAY-CARS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 604,085, dated May 17, 1898. Application filed October 14, 1897. fierial No. 655,135. (No model.)

To ctZZ whom it may concern: rear ends to a strap or bracket F, which Be it known that I, WILLARD F. RICHARDS, brackets are bolted to cross-pieces fastened a citizen of the United States, residing at Bufto the car-sills. falo, in the county of Erie and State of New G is a carriage running upon the tracks E 5 York, have invented a new and useful Imand carrying the dynamo, which latter is seprovementinElectric-LightingApparatusfor cured to base-flanges of the carriage. Railway- Cars, of which the following is a g represents the wheels or rollers of the carspecification. riage, which run upon the lower flanges of the This invention relates to electric-lighting tracks E and are journaled upon transverse 1o apparatus for railway-cars in which the curpivot-bolts g, secured to lugs g arranged at rent is generated by a dynamo driven from the upper front and rear portions of the carone of the car-axles, and more particularly to riage. The carriage is free to roll onits tracks, an apparatus in which the dynamo is capable and the same and the dynamo are constantly of moving toward and from the car-axle and moved away from the car-axle for tensioning I 5 driven by a belt which slips on the drivingthe belt by the following mechanism:

pulley of the dynamo when the speed of the His ahorizontal cylinder arranged in front machine exceeds a predetermined degree, so of the dynamo-carriage and formed on or soas to maintain a practically constant speed cured to the bracketFor otherwise supported and output of the dynamo. An apparatus of independently of the carriage. 7o 20 this kind is shown and described in another H is a piston arranged in the'cylinder 11, application for patent filed by me 011 or about and his a rod which connects the piston with the 20th day of September, 1897, Serial No. the carriage, said rod being secured at its 652,511. rear end to a web or cross-piece 72. of the car- The object of my present invention is to riage. The cylinder is provided on the rear 2 5 provide a simple and compact device for ten side of the piston with an inlet port or passioning the frictional driving mechanism by sage 2', through which fluid under pressure, which the dynamo is driven from the carsuch as compressed air, is supplied to the axle. same, so as to force the piston rearwardly in In the accompanying drawings, consisting the cylinder, thereby causing the same to 0 of two sheets, Figure 1 is a sectional side elemove the carriage and the dynamo away vation of my improved apparatus applied to from the car-axle and tensioning the drivinga railway-car. Fig. 2 is a front view of the belt. apparatus. Fig. 3 is a transverse vertical J is a valve-chamber preferably arranged section thereof in line 3 8, Fig.- 1. on the bracket F and having its lower por- 8 5 3 5 Like letters of reference refer to like parts tion connected with the pressure-cylinder by in the several figures. the passage and 7c is a fluid-supply pipe A is the car-frame, A the floor of the car, leading to the lower portion of said valveand B one of the axles. chamber and preferably connected with the I O is the dynamo, c the armature-shaft havusual air or storage tank of the air-brakes. 4o ing the driving-pulley c, and D a driving- L is an automatic regulating or reducing belt running around the pulley of the armavalve arranged in the valve-chamber J and ture-shaft and a pulley D, secured to the applied to a seat at the upper end of the conaXle. necting-passage 2'. This valve is carried by E represents parallel horizontal tracks or a flexible diaphragm m, which extends across 5 ways arranged lengthwise on the under side the valve-chamber above the inlet of the latof the car-body in rear of the car-axle and ter, so that the pressure of the air against the firmly connected with the body. In the conunder side of the diaphragm raises or deflects struction shown in the drawings the tracks its central portion upwardly, thus opening consist of channel-bars havingtheirchanneled the reducing-valve and allowing the air to I00 50 sides arranged to face each other and secured enter the cylinder H and exert its pressure at their front ends to abracket F and at their against the rear side of the piston I-I.

a is a spring which is arranged in the valvechamber J above the diaphragm m and which resists the upward deflection of the same, causing the valve to act as a reducing-valve, whereby the air-pressure upon the piston is diminished. This spring surrounds the stem of the reducing-valve between the diaphragm and an adjusting screw or plug 0, which latter engages with an internally-screw-threaded neck 0, extending upwardly from the valvechamber. The stem of this screw-plug preferably extends into a countersunk casing P, arranged in an opening of the car-floor, so that the plug can be turned from the inside of the car, the stem of the plug being formed to receive a suitable detachable wrench. By adjusting the screw-plug 0 up or down the resistance of the spring n is varied accordingly, and the air-pressure upon the piston is regulated correspondingly, the pressure being increased as the tension of the spring is diminished and reduced as the tension of the spring is increased, thus changing the tension or resistance of the air-cushion in the cylinder in the same measure.

(1 is an equalizing port or passage which connects the cylinder H with the portion of the valve-chamber J above the diaphragm m and whereby the pressure above and below the diaphragm is balanced. Upon admitting air to the cylinder the pressure raises the diaphragm and opens the valve, when the air enters the cylinder and also passes through the equalizingpassage (1 into the chamber above the diaphragm. As soon as the pressure in the cylinder and said chamber is balanced the spring 11 depresses the diaphragm and closes the valve. The air-pressure in the cylinder will now be equal to the difference between the initial pressure in the supply-pipe and the resistance oifered by the diaphragm-spring. l/Vhen any leakage of air from the cylinder takes place, the loss is followed by a reduction of pressure in the chamber above the diaphragm as well as in the cylinder, and the initial pressure now overcomes the resistance of the diaphragm and raises it and opens the valve, whereupon air enters the cylinder and said chamber until the loss of air and the normal air-pressure are restored, when the spring, owing to the balancing of the pressure above and below the diaphragm, is allowed to again close the valve. The loss of air is thus restored automatically.

The motion of the car-axle is transmitted to the armature-shaft of the dynamo so long as the speed of the latter remains ator below the normal; but as soon as the speed rises above the normal by the increased speed of the train the increased pull of the belt resulting therefrom overcomes the weight of the suspended dynamo and the resistance of the tensioning device and draws the dynamo toward the car-axle from which it is driven, thereby slackening the driving-belt, allowing it to slip on the driving-pulley of the dynamo and permitting the speed of the dynamo to fall to the normal, when the dynamo will again move away from the driving-pulley under the force of the tension device and tighten the belt and so maintain the normal speed and output of the dynamo. By means of the adjusting screw or plug 0 the tension of the driving-belt can be regulated for obtaining the desired output of the dynamo.

I do not wish to claim, broadly, in this application the frictional driving mechanism for the dynamo in combination with a i'luidpressure mechanism for rendering said driving mechanism effective, as that is claimed in my previous application hereinbefore referred to.

I claim as my invention 1. The combination with a railway-vehicle and its axle, of a longitudinal track or way arranged on the under side of the vehicle, a dynamo mounted 011 said track and capable of moving toward and from the car-axle, a frictional driving mechanism whereby the dynamo is driven from said car-axle, a horizontal cylinder supported by the vehicle, a piston arranged in said cylinder and connected with the dynamo, and means for delivering fluid under pressure to said cylinder, substantially as set forth.

2. The combination with a railway-vehicle and its axle, of a longitudinal track or way arranged on the under side of the vehicle, a dynamo-carriage mounted 011 said track and capable of moving toward and from the caraxle, a frictional driving mechanism whereby the dynamo is driven from said car-axle, a horizontal pressure cylinder arranged bctween the car-axle, and the dynamo and sup ported by the vehicle, a piston arranged in said cylinder and having its rod connected directly with the dynamo-carriage and an inlet-valve controlling the admission of fluid to said pressure-cylinder, substantially as set forth.

3. The combination with a railway-vehicle, its axle and a movable dynamo adapted to be driven from the. car-axle by a frictional driving mechanism, of a longitudinal track or way arranged on the under side of the vehicle and supporting the dynamo, a bracket supporting the front end of said track and car rying a horizontal pressure-cylinder and a valve-chamber communicating with said cylinder, a piston arranged in said cylinder and connected with the dynamo, and an inletvalve arranged in said chamber and controlling the admission of fluid to the same, substantially as set forth.

Witness my hand this 5th day of October, 1897.

WILLARD F. RICHARDS.

lVitnesses:

KATHRYN ELMonn, G. R. DEAN.

IIO 

